Fending Off Fraud

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By Thomas Hanna, communications manager

What's Happening: With support from Arnold Ventures, reform advocates are starting to address the problem of falling clearance rates – the percentage of reported crimes that are solved.

Why it matters: Currently, under half of all homicides, and an even smaller percentage of nonfatal shootings, are solved nationwide.

What’s Next: States like Arkansas, Tennessee, Ohio, Utah, and Maryland are taking steps to address the problem of low clearance rates. At the federal level, the recently introduced, bipartisan VICTIM Act would provide around $360 million to local law enforcement agencies to invest in investigations and victim services.

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Public Finance

• AV grantees the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget and Tax Foundation released analyses of the President’s FY 2025 budget.
   
• Kevin Freking writes about the set of spending bills passed by the Senate and signed into law by President Biden last Friday for the Associated Press.
   
• Former Ohio Senator Rob Portman encourages Congress to create a fiscal commission to solve the nation’s debt problem for The Hill.

Criminal Justice

• In an op-ed for Governing, former prosecutor Lisel Petis of R Street Institute explains how evidence-based bail reform can make communities safer, improve fairness in the justice system, reduce costs, and protect individual freedom.  
   
• As part of Sunshine Week, which draws attention to issues of transparency and open government, the Correctional Association of New York (CANY) highlights a series of ongoing efforts to improve accountability and transparency in New York’s prison system.
   
• In Montgomery, Alabama, Mayor Steven Reed has signed an executive order eliminating certain older municipal fines and fees, the Montgomery Independent reports. This includes fines and fees for most minor traffic tickets, misdemeanor marijuana possession, and Class C misdemeanors that have gone unpaid for more than 10 years.  

• In a new blog post, the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget estimates that the College Cost Reduction Act could save at least $150 billion over a decade.
   
• Idaho lawmakers are pushing back on a plan by the University of Idaho to acquire the University of Phoenix, which is potentially under investigation by the Federal Trade Commission for running deceptive ads that falsely implied the for-profit school was a public university.

• Farmers are installing solar panels on their land to provide a baseline revenue source at a time of volatile crop prices, Bloomberg reports.
   
• Jerusalem Demsas writes in The Atlantic about how the movement for housing abundance and housing affordability has hit “the bipartisan sweet spot.”
   
• In The New York Times, Conor Dougherty describes the movement as the “surprising left-right alliance that wants more apartments in suburbs.” (free link)
   
• Developers are prioritizing smaller homes as Americans pursue lower housing costs, but land-use regulations may stand in the way, The Washington Post reports. (free link)

• On Wednesday, March 20, at 2 p.m. ET, the Arnold Ventures Evidence and Evaluation team will host a 45-minute webinar to talk more about its two new RFPs and the application process. Attendees may submit questions in advance and during the webinar. Register here.
   
• On Thursday, March 28, at 2:30 p.m. ET, the Committe for a Responsible Federal Budget (CRFB) will hold a half-day event entitled, "When the TCJA Expires: A Tax Policy Summit" at the Royal Sonesta Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. To see the agenda, which includes Arnold Ventures Executive Vice President of Public Finance George Callas, and to RSVP, click here.

• Do all flights out of Ireland feature fiddlers and jigs? Only if you're lucky, or you're sitting next to Sean Magee.
   
• Big-as-a-pony Irish wolfhounds can grow to 200 pounds. Here's what it looks like to live with one.
   
• If you were wondering whether there was such a thing as Gen Z viral Irish dancers, meet the Gardiner brothers, who pair their stepping with music from Beyoncé, the Bee Gees, Queen, and Eminem.